Masteries

Offense:
9

Defense:
21

Utility:
0

Introduction

Kog'Maw is an amazing champ with an amazing skill set. Most people build him as a traditional carry, weak early game, but amazing late game. Other builds put him in the caster role where he dominates early (like most casters), but doesn't have the same carrying ability.

This build gives him both. It requires 2 different play styles and may be a little tricky for some players. But when mastered, he dominates early/mid game as a nuking disabler, and late game he burns through 15% health with every shot, hitting 5 times in 2 seconds, for 75% of the target's max health.

Play like 2 Different Characters
Early game, Kog is a nuking caster with a 4 second, 60% AoE slow that can damage and disable an entire team. He shoots artillery that hits hard from extremely far away, checking bushes, killing people running away, or bombing enemies next to their tower. Immediately after spamming his nukes, he can turn on Bio-Arcane Barrage for strong early game DPS.

During mid game, he starts to change from the nuking disabler, to the careful squishy DPS, tearing people up from behind tanks. He can farm lanes and creep camps instantly with , and becomes one of the best pushers in the game.

Late game, he hangs back, out of range of the enemy, doing 14-15% of a target's max health in magic damage with every shot (++400-500 AP), shooting at the fastest speed in the game.

Final Thoughts
I've played Kog'Maw for a long time with the old carry builds. It's a lot of fun. But this build brings so much to early game that I feel gimped if I play the old carry now.

Try it. Practice it. Learn to anticipate your opponents moves until you hit every Void Ooze and Living Artillery skill shot. Learn to farm like crazy and push lanes. Learn to switch from nuker/disabler to DPS going into late game. Do these and you can dominate, not just late game, but the entire time.

Remember, 406 AP means an extra 4.06% of the target's health taken away from Bio-Arcane Barrage.

Attack Speed

Kog'Maw needs 231% Bonus Attack Speed to reach the cap of 2.5 attacks per second, at level 18. Caustic Spittle gives 30%, so 201% is left to fill up. Since this build takes the Ardor Mastery, 192% would reach the hit cap.

Masteries:
+ 4% "Alacrity" Mastery.
x 4% "Ardor" Mastery = approximately +8 or 9% when you get close to the speed cap.

Items

Always pick items that counter your opponents. Therefore this list should always be changing. However, these are the picks that I often go with and the reasons why.

The 3 builds above are samples of the basic ideas below.
Early to Mid game = Caster using +
Mid to Late Game = Carry using + Attack Speed (while still getting the synergy from )

Early to Mid game = Caster

An amazing opening item. If you harass your opponent as much as they harass you, with this and 21 points in defense, you'll consistently have more health. That gives you the ability to do more last hitting or get first blood. I stopped buying a Health Potion because I rarely needed it with Kog'Maw's range and harassing abilities.

Philosopher's Stone Gives you the much needed MP5 + the laning power of the health regen. You can sell it after having it for 13 minutes to make all of your 800 gold back. You can upgrade it into Eleisa's Miracle if they have heavy CC. I usually hold onto it for a long time, but always think of it as an extra 400 if I need it while at the fountain.

Mid Game

This item seems not to fit at first, but strangely, it's the item that makes this build work so damn well. It synergizes with the passives from Rabadon's Deathcap, Caustic Spittle, and the Ardor mastery. It keeps your AP effectively high mid-game, and starts the transition into "attack speed carry" mode.

Almost like a free Madred's Bio-Arcane Barrage now hits for an extra 3.55%. This is a key point in this build. We focused on AP so our spells hit hard. But we ended up to getting 32% attack speed and hitting for 3.55% Max Health. This is very close to what a Madred's Bloodrazor does. The drawback is that you don't get the 3.55% bonus with your normal attacks. You have to be more skilled with the timing of your .

During mid-game, + usually does more damage than + because a very strong + + will hurt more than a slightly stronger .

But this won't last long. If the game isn't over before late game, you're going to need Madred's Bloodrazor & attack speed. Luckily, strong + makes farming lanes and jungles very quick and easy. Because you farm so much better with this build (and hopefully dominate more early/mid game), you can buy them fairly quickly.

Bio-Arcane Barrage is very important late game, but usually upgraded last because 1% max health is not much early game. But if you feel you need range in your lane, feel free to put an extra point or 2 in it. It's certainly not bad.

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